Inner Demon

by Jocelynn Drake

  Missy looked like your average, thirtysomething female—­except for her eyes. Shoulder-­length blonde hair framed a narrow oval face from which red eyes burned with the light of insanity. Dark energy hung around her like a second shadow. Kyle’s potion had created a monster that I would never have expected. The power burned within her and her body wasn’t able to contain it all. It oozed from her, burning away her soul with each passing day.

  It was on the tip of my tongue to ask the woman why she had felt the need to go down this self-­destructive road of murder and pain, but I swallowed back the words. Hatred radiated from her like a nuclear plant in meltdown.

  No, I kept my focus on Vincent. Nothing could stop him, but he was the one with the power to kill me in the blink of an eye. He was the one determined to turn Low Town into a ghost town in an effort to bring back . . . something. Chang had killed the suggestion of Lilith, leaving me struggling to figure out Vincent’s master plan.

  “So, what’s the plan now, Vinnie? Hoping to wipe out all of Low Town?” I asked, dropping my hand back down to my side. At the same time, I shifted my left wrist, checking to see that my wand was still tucked securely up my sleeve. I wasn’t yet sure what the hell I was going to do against the asshole, but for now I was content to just buy some time. The more time I had, the more opportunities there were to make something happen in my favor.

  “I had thought about it,” Vincent admitted, scratching his chin. “One town is as good as any other, but Low Town has two warlocks settled within her rotten bosom. I figured there had to be something special about this town if two warlocks were hiding here.” He lowered his hand as a gruesome smile stretched across his thin lips and the same insane light flickered in his eyes. “I thought I would have to destroy every living thing within the wretched little burg just to complete my spell, but then I found something better.”

  “And what’s that?”

  Vincent waved his hand back at Trixie and cackled. “Why her, of course! She’s just what I need to raise them.” This time he lifted his hand to my left and I twisted around to gaze into the warehouse behind me.

  I stumbled back a step in stunned horror at the sight of rows of pale white bodies . The closest wasn’t more than twenty feet away from me. It was a naked woman wrapped in white fabric that shone like silk. Her long white hair looked like it had been recently brushed and spread in a fan beneath her. In the center of her forehead was a shining ruby about the size of my palm.

  My gaze skipped over them all. They all looked like that. Perfectly groomed, wrapped in pristine white cloths with gems in the middle of their foreheads. Despite being dead for centuries, there was no hint of decay or rot. They could have all been sleeping. There had to have been at least fifty of them lined up there.

  The vampires brought back to life were more than just a message to the Towers; they were an experiment in actually raising the dead. But it still didn’t make any sense. How could killing Trixie give him the power to raise all of his ­people? Or maybe he didn’t intend to raise them all with just her? Maybe he needed only one and then together they would fan out across the city, murdering ­people until all the unicorns were returned to the living.

  I shook my head as I turned back to Vincent. He was smiling as he brushed his hair back to reveal the onyx stone winking in the middle of his forehead. The stories I’d heard while living in the Towers said that in human form the unicorn’s horn was replaced by a priceless gem of remarkable size. Supposedly the only way to get the gem and the core of the unicorn’s power was to kill it while it was in human form. But then, the gem wasn’t nearly as valuable as the horn.

  “I don’t get it. What could killing Trixie get you? Killing an elf isn’t going to raise all the dead.”

  “No, you idiot!” Vincent screamed, stomping his foot like a three-­year-­old preparing for a massive tantrum. “It’s not her. It’s what she’s carrying.”

  I tried not to react, but I felt myself grow sick and pale at his words. He knew about our child. Trixie wasn’t showing and we had told very few ­people, but somehow he knew.

  The wicked grin returned to Vincent’s face as soon as he realized that he had me.

  “How did you know?” I demanded in a rough voice over the lump in my throat.

  Vincent giggled with glee. “How could I not? I am a unicorn. We are the keepers of life and innocence, guardians of the pure. I would have been able to sense the growth of your child from across the globe. I have spent a lifetime preserving the remains of my ­people and when I sensed your child spring to life, I knew it was time to finally act.”

  “There’s no point in this,” I said in a low, even voice, while inwardly I was fighting the urge to rip this fucker’s face off. “One child, one life, won’t give you the years needed to bring back all of these unicorns.”

  Rushing back over to Trixie’s side, Vincent knelt beside her and lightly patted her on the top of her head. She tried to jerk away from him, but her struggles only amused him. “You see, that’s what I thought was the key to Death Magic, too,” he admitted, sounding excited with the idea of talking a little shop with a fellow spell weaver. “And humans are all the same. You’re lucky if you can squeeze about seventy years out of them before they’re wrung dry.”

  Giving Trixie one last affectionate look, he pushed back to his feet and turned toward me. “But then I made the most brilliant accident while in Charlotte. I grabbed a child who had been destined to be one of you,” he said with a sneer as he pointed at me. “The poor thing just didn’t know it yet.” He paused, giving me this faux sad face before loudly clapping his hands together. “But I saved her from that nasty fate. She did give one last burst of magic energy to save herself, created out of the stress of the situation. Surprised the heck out of both of us!”

  “And because of her, you were able to raise all the vampires you murdered,” I finished, grinding the words between my teeth as I spoke.

  Vincent danced around in a little circle as he giggled with manic glee. “The power from that little girl alone raised all those blood suckers and I still had plenty left over!” When he stopped, he looked disappointed by the fact that I wasn’t celebrating with him. “Don’t you see? I figured it out! It wasn’t just a matter of lifespan and years. Even a witch doesn’t have that long of a life; a few centuries at best. But it’s also about potential! A witch will pull in and use magic in multiple ways throughout her lifetime. It’s the potential to change and affect lives; the potential to change the world around her in so many ways. That’s the real power of Death Magic. You harness the years and the potential!”

  And in my child, Vincent saw an enormous lifespan and amazing potential because the child would have the ability to tap magic through its elvish heritage and my warlock genes. In the end, it was enough to bring back the unicorns from the dead.

  My stomach twisted as I watched Vincent celebrate his breakthrough, my mind blank as to what I could do to get out of this mess. No, that was wrong. I needed to get Trixie out of this mess and permanently away from this bastard. But knowing that I was up against an insane unicorn with way too much power at his fingertips, I was left struggling for an edge.

  “To tell you the truth,” Vincent continued with a heavy sigh, “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do to generate enough energy. I thought I might blow up a few grade schools, but that wasn’t going to be enough. But you solved my problem! And I even get the wonderful pleasure of killing the child of a warlock while he watches.”

  “And what about her?” I jerked my head toward the murderous woman, still unsure of how she fit into the picture with Vincent. If he’d found all he needed with Trixie and my child, then why would he ever need to work with a human? I’d always assumed that he’d need the help killing innocents to raise the necessary power. “You don’t need her.”

  “My sweet little Missy?” Vincent cooed. He stepped over to the mad woman and pinched
her cheek. “No, I guess I don’t need her, but then you don’t really need a pet. She amuses me and has such a brilliant talent for killing.” The unicorn gave me a little shrug as if embarrassed by his sentimental weakness. “And if I should ever need a little Death Magic to raise another army of zombies, Missy would be so happy kill some poor souls for me.”

  “I’m happy to kill for Vinnie,” she purred.

  “I’m sure you are,” I muttered, inwardly wishing that they’d just kill each other, but that wasn’t going to happen. Not for this happy ­couple. “What—­”

  Shots rang out, echoing through the massive warehouse and cutting off my question. I dropped to the ground, seeking some kind of cover when there was none near me. Lying flat on the dirty concrete, I chanced a look around to find Serah coming in from a side entrance with Gideon hot on her heels. The cavalry had arrived at last.

  “Watch out! He’s a unicorn!” I shouted as I pushed off the ground and scurried over to Trixie. I never saw the warlock react to my words, but then Gideon was a master at hiding his emotions. He just kept his eyes his adversary, while Serah kept the other bitch busy.

  Just a ­couple feet away from Trixie, a massive force slammed into my chest, knocking me away from her. My shoulder hit the concrete first and my right arm went numb for a second from the impact. Gritting my teeth, I pushed back to my feet, flexing my fingers against the pain as I quickly checked to make sure that my arm hadn’t been knocked out of its socket. My shoulder hurt like hell and my skull felt like it had been cracked, but my brains weren’t leaking out so I’d push on.

  A quick assessment of the magic in the air revealed that Gideon was attempting to put a binding spell on Vincent to keep the fucker from killing one of us with magic. I was willing to be a whole lot less subtle. I already owed magic two years for killing; what did it matter if I tacked on a third? It took frighteningly little time to mentally call up a spell that would rip Vincent’s heart from his chest.

  The reluctance I’d felt just a short time ago at Chang’s about killing the last unicorn? Gone. Evaporated in an instant when I saw Trixie held captive. Vincent was insane and he was killing innocent ­people to raise the dead. He’d threatened Trixie. Threatened my child. He was going to die.

  With a rush of twisted magical energy, I threw it at the unicorn, ready to send him screaming into the next life, but it never reached him.

  Vincent’s high-­pitched laugh rose above the gunshots and the screaming. With a light wave of his hand, he pushed away the spell I’d created as if it were a butterfly fluttering about his head. “Did you really think you could get to me so easily?” he chuckled. “Your magic is useless.”

  It looked like he was right, but there had to be a way. The Towers had destroyed nearly every dragon and unicorn on the planet. I didn’t have a freaking clue how they managed to do it, but I was willing to bet that they’d done it with magic, since they didn’t do a damn thing without it.

  My gaze darted briefly to Serah as she fired at Missy. The killer was bleeding from several gunshot wounds but they weren’t slowing her down. Serah popped out a spent magazine as she ran, leaving it to clatter against the concrete floor and reaching for a fresh one from her coat pocket. The TAPSS investigator turned and fired again.

  As Gideon aimed a new and lethal spell at Vincent, I magically jerked some rusted rebar free from a partially crumbling pillar. The steel rod whistled through the air as it cut across the warehouse, chasing behind Missy until it finally caught her. With a twist of my wrist, the rebar wrapped around the woman, pinning her arms against her sides and trapping her legs together so that she dropped to her knees with an enraged scream.

  “Keep your gun on her!” I shouted at Serah while I turned my attention back to Vincent. The unicorn needed to go down, if only for a few moments. Anything so I could get Trixie out of danger.

  Taking my lead from Gideon, I tried to match a second binding spell to the one he was attempting, hoping that power from both of us might work.

  But still, Vincent waved it off with a yawn. “Here. Allow me to give you a lesson.”

  I didn’t have time to even flinch at those words. The magical energy crushed me to the ground. It wasn’t the same as when he’d used Death Magic, but rather it tasted sweet like spun sugar and caramel apples. Yet, it was tainted and twisted, leaving you sure that the caramel also contained poison. Pain clamped down on my muscles and my scream was echoed by Gideon’s. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the warlock hit the ground a second before me.

  I blinked and found myself staring at Trixie. Her mouth was open, but I couldn’t hear her shouting over the roar in my ears. Or maybe that was my own screaming. The blood in my veins was on fire, pouring through my body so that it ignited each organ. The elf strained against the ropes that held her arms behind her. She was getting free, but I was afraid that she’d come to me if she did. I didn’t want her to save me. I wanted her out of here. I wanted her safe.

  The pain suddenly eased. My gaze darted to Vincent to find that blood had blossomed on his shoulder. With Missy somewhat secure, Serah got one shot off at the unicorn, but now she had his attention. The TAPSS investigator dropped her gun to her side and took a wary step back toward her captive. Missy snarled as she struggled to get free. Blood soaked her long-­sleeved cotton shirt from her gunshot wounds, but she didn’t seem to notice. The rebar was keeping her trapped and all she wanted to do was to tear into Serah. But she didn’t need to. Vincent was about to do that.

  “Vincent!” I shouted, my voice hoarse from screaming.

  “Later,” the unicorn muttered, making a little shoving motion in my direction so that I stumbled back to the ground as the wave of magic hit me.

  Gideon caught on that we needed to be more direct in our approach. He punched Vincent with a nasty spell that was meant to boil the creature’s flesh off his bones. A small shriek cut through the air as Vincent wasn’t able to immediately unwind the spell. Large red blisters broke out across his hands and face before popping, making it look like his skin was starting to ooze away.

  With a snarl, Vincent made a single slashing motion at Gideon and the warlock went down with a gasp. He landed on his side facing me and I could see that the front of his shirt had been shredded and was becoming dark red with his blood. Gideon didn’t move for several seconds despite the fact that Vincent was closing in on him.

  “Vincent!” I screamed, trying to draw the unicorn away from my companion, but he paused only long enough to toss a spell behind his shoulder. I cringed, waiting for it to hit, but it never did. Trixie screamed, her body twisting against her bonds as she attempted to get away.

  Swearing vehemently, I quickly unraveled the spell attacking the elf as I pushed to my feet. Her screams stopped a second later and she nodded her thanks to me. With Vincent’s attention trained on Gideon, Serah rushed over to start cutting through Trixie’s ropes.

  For a breath, the world slowed down and everything became startlingly clear. Gideon and I couldn’t beat Vincent. The Towers might have crushed the unicorns and driven them to extinction, but it couldn’t be done with one warlock and another who’d never finished his apprenticeship. Vincent had centuries of experience and access to power that I couldn’t tap on my best day. At my peak, I couldn’t use the same powers that Vincent had punched through me . I needed an edge, something to level the playing field, or we were all dead.

  Pulling my wand out of my left sleeve, I pushed the tip into the palm of my left hand as I looked over at Serah. “Stay there with Trixie and don’t move until I tell you,” I said in a calm voice.

  “Gage,” Trixie rasped, fear filling her wide green eyes.

  I wanted to apologize to her. To reassure her that everything would be okay. But as I hovered on the precipice in that second, I knew the road I stood on would take me farther away from the woman I loved. There would be no going back. There was only this road or death. I
gave her a small smile. I was choosing life for her and my child.

  Using my wand like a knife, I cut the demon’s symbol into my palm. As I finished the last line, I whispered the words of the spell I used to unlock the doorway. And the whole world changed in the blink of an eye.

  I roared as a torrent of energy flooded into my frame, lifting me up until my toes barely scraped the ground. My arms were flung out to my sides as the energy filled every fiber of my being. Pain was erased and I felt alive!

  No, it was better than that. I felt powerful. It wasn’t the same power that I tapped into every time I cast a spell. It wasn’t the energy cast by every living creature on the planet. This was darker magic, drawing from the well of energy in the Underworld. This was the power of the demons. True death magic.

  As I slowly settled back down onto my feet, a darkness fully cloaked me, wrapping its way around my soul. I could feel a low chuckle echo up through my body before thumping against my brain. Zyrus. The demon was no longer outside, terrorizing anyone who came close. No, the demon was now inside of me and reveling in its newfound freedom. It could now feel things in ways it never could before when set loose upon this world. Dark, malicious emotions twined with mine, blending and merging so that it was difficult to determine where I ended and the demon began. The next laugh I heard rumbled up my own throat.

  Vincent froze a ­couple feet from Gideon and stared at me. There was a mix of horror and hatred in his lean face, twisting his features so that his inner insanity and ugliness were visible to the naked eye. A grin stretched my mouth wide and the demon’s twisted joy washed through me and became my own. Together, we had the power to take down the unicorn, and Vincent knew it.

  His eyes darted back to Gideon as the warlock moved slowly, trying to push into a sitting position. The unicorn lunged at him. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to attack him or simply trying to use him as a shield, but we weren’t going to allow it. Dropping my wand on the ground, I reached out both hands and threw out a chunk of the energy boiling within me, throwing Vincent toward the wall farthest from Gideon. A pain-­filled cry rose from the unicorn as he crashed against it and fell to his knees.